Willow La Fey
by mmooch
Summary: When Snyder orders the gang to wear costumes from mythology, nobody knows the tragedy it will cause. WARNING: Eventual character death s .
1. Chapter 1: The Merger

**Willow La Fey**

Summary: When Snyder orders the gang to wear costumes from mythology, nobody knows the tragedy it will cause. WARNING: Eventual character death(s).

Challenge: personal request from Harry, who has faithfully R&R a lot of my stories.

Timeline: starting in season 2 _'Halloween'_, but going wildly AU from there.

Warning: ehh, probably not for Willow fans.

Thanks to my betas: none this time. I barely managed to get it done in time without sending it off to them. I'll try to get the rest finished within a week.

Disclaimer: BtVS and AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. Don't own Camelot characters either, but don't have the slightest clue who does since I'm not using a particular book or movie about them. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

**Chapter 1: The Merger**

**Streets of Sunnydale**

Morgana gave a half-smile when she rose to consciousness again. She was happy to be free once more, but seeing as how she wasn't in her own body, that freedom was limited to somebody else's whims. First things first, how did she get here?

Searching through her host's mind, Morgana was surprised, delighted and a touch concerned at what she found. This Willow girl lived on a Hellmouth, was practically obsessive about learning things and had a friend who was the Slayer. The first two could be used to her advantage, while the last one could be a problem if not dealt with properly.

She felt for the magick responsible and almost laughed when she figured it out. A chaos mage…what a fool for attempting a spell like this on a Hellmouth! He wasn't even careful enough about what costumes he allowed to be part of it. If he were, Morgana Le Fay would never have been in the mix.

That begged the question of whether Merlin was roaming the streets somewhere as well.

Unfortunately, that issue had to be set aside until she took care of a bigger problem: what would happen to her when the spell finished or broke apart – depending on how skilled this mage was. Chances were he designed the spell to only have temporary effects, which meant she would be cast back to oblivion for who knows how long. She couldn't allow that to happen.

There was a way around that, however. All she had to do was convince Willow Rosenberg to share her mind and body…at least until Morgana was strong enough to take over and evict her.

The girl's thirst for knowledge and power should work wonders in achieving that goal.

'_Miss Rosenberg,'_ Morgana began. _'A spell has been cast which has the most wonderful side effect.'_

'_What's that? And who are you?'_ Willow questioned, sounding suitably scared.

Using her most soothing and seductive tone, Morgana replied, _'My name is Morgana, and we have the opportunity to save the world together. I just need your help in staying here to do it.'_

'_I thought you were evil, though,' _Willow said without thinking. _'At least that's what most of the stories I read about Camelot claimed.'_

Rather than take offense, Morgana simply brushed the accusation aside, _'And who writes the stories you read? __**Men**__, that's who. Men who didn't want to admit that King Arthur – my beloved brother – would need the help of a woman when he had Merlin on his side.'_

Willow never considered herself as vehement a feminist as Gloria Steinem, but she did hate how women were marginalized in society. She could imagine it was worse in Morgana's day. That's why she was willing to believe the ancient sorceress. _'So you didn't fight Merlin?' _she inquired.

'_I had to once,' _Morgana admitted, seemingly reluctantly. She knew that a half-truth went a long way to clouding a lie. _'He was poisoned by the blood of a dragon, which drove him insane. To save my life and the lives of others, I had to fight him.'_ That much was true, but she left out the part where she was the one who poisoned her nemesis.

Sensing that the young woman was almost convinced, Morgana pushed just a little more, _'Think of how much help you could be to your friend, Buffy, if you knew magick as well as I do. In fact, you could be so powerful that you could take over for her if you wanted. Wouldn't that be a relief to her?'_

'_Well…she has said before that she hates having the weight of the world on her shoulders,' _Willow confirmed. The thought that she could be as powerful as Buffy was appealing…very appealing. And not necessarily for the reasons one might think. If Willow was 'superhero-ish' like Buffy, maybe Xander would look at her differently. _'Okay. What do I have to do?'_

* * *

><p>AN: I'm hoping that by putting this part out and getting some feedback, it will help get Musie more interested in the next part(s).


	2. Chapter 2: The Takeover

**Chapter 2: The Takeover**

Challenge: personal request from Harry, who has faithfully R&R a lot of my stories.

Warning: ehh, probably not for Willow fans.

Thanks to my betas: scanned by JacobPhoenix.

Disclaimer: BtVS and AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. Don't own Camelot characters either, but don't have the slightest clue who does since I'm not using a particular book or movie about them. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

* * *

><p><strong>The next day…<strong>

'_Willow, my dear, you shouldn't tell any of your friends about our arrangement just yet,'_ Morgana purred in Willow's mind the next morning.

'_But why?'_ Willow asked. _'They'd be so happy to learn I could do magick!'_

'_Except you can't…not yet anyway,'_ Morgana reminded her vessel. _'Wait until I've trained you, so you can prove what an asset you can be to the Slayer.'_

Willow thought about it for a few minutes, then agreed, _'I guess that makes sense.'_

Not that Morgana had any intention of letting Willow spill the beans. And being as good at seduction as she was, the ancient sorceress was always able to come up with 'just one more reason' why they should wait a little bit longer every time Willow mentioned it.

* * *

><p><strong>Over the following months…<strong>

Her training started out small.

To whet Willow's appetite for magick, Morgana showed her how to levitate small objects such as pencils. With the wood in them, the seemingly harmless writing utensils were turned into deadly weapons when piercing the undead hearts of vampires.

After a while, Morgana had managed to get her vessel to perform some small selfish magick which had nothing to do with slaying, so she moved forward in her training program.

The first time she helped Willow cast a fire spell to immolate a vampire, Morgana knew that the girl was hooked on the power. It was only a matter of time before she relied so much on Morgana's help that she would cede total control – even if only for a minute or two, and that's all Morgana needed.

But first, the ancient sorcereress needed to have a firmer hold on the young girl. And that meant exploiting her greatest weaknesses…one of which was her love for Xander Harris. If manipulated correctly, love could be turned into obsession, and obsession made somebody very easy to corrupt.

'_Did you see how Buffy glared at Xander when he paid attention to Kendra? She gets jealous when there's another powerful female around – especially one who could be interested in Xander. Saving her life last spring might have made her re-evaluate her feelings for him. I don't think her claim that he's 'one of the girls' is really how she sees him…at least not anymore,'_ Morgana whispered in Willow's mind.

It wasn't hard to convince Willow that her greatest fear was coming true. _'What can I do about it if she does like him?'_ she pleaded with her witchy mentor.

Fighting the headache she felt from dealing with teen angst, Morgana ordered, _'Divert her attention! Remind her how romantic her relationship with Angel is – like Romeo and Juliet.'_

'_But that ended in tragedy,'_ Willow reminded the ancient sorcereress.

Morgana growled at the girl's stubbornness, _'Fine! They're a modern-day Romeo and Juliet, but with a happy ending. Their love is the kind of love that will become legendary. All they need is a little…encouragement.'_

Willow liked the idea of a happy Romeo and Juliet. _'What do you mean?'_

'_A clarification spell; it will help ease any doubts they may have about being together. Don't worry, it doesn't affect their free will at all. If they don't love each other, nothing will happen,'_ Morgana explained convincingly. Of course, 'love' had many meanings – including pure physical attraction like the Slayer and the ensouled vampire was at the moment.

'_What do I have to do?'_

Just like that, the hook into Willow's body was dangling for Morgana to start controlling her on a more direct level. All she needed was for Willow to take the bait…and the body would be hers.

* * *

><p>It wasn't until Buffy's birthday, though, that Willow finally acted on Morgana's advice. Up until then, Willow simply pushed Buffy in Angel's direction with her words, spouting about how romantic their forbidden love was. And it wasn't as if she were <em>making<em> Buffy fall in love or anything. At least that's what she told herself whenever she felt guilty.

She was sorta dating Oz by that point, but it was mostly to make Xander jealous – and when she showed up at the Bronze with the guitarist, Xander certainly didn't seem happy. Willow – helped by Morgana's persuasion – figured it was a win-win situation for her. Either she would get the guy of her dreams, or she'd end up with a nice guy who liked her even though she wasn't some superhero girl.

But with Angel leaving town with the Judge's arm, Willow knew that she had to do something quick to keep Xander away from Buffy and vice versa. So as the doomed pair left together, she cast a slow-building lust spell on her best friend. It would take at least an hour to reach its full strength, but nothing would happen until they had some privacy to act on her feelings. Willow only hoped that Angel wouldn't be able to turn down a sex-crazed Slayer when the time came.

Of course, when they found out about the loophole in the curse, Morgana had a monumental task to keep Willow from coming clean about what she did. In the end, she got the young witch to agree that since they didn't cast the spell on Angel, it was his fault for not being stronger. Questionable logic, sure, but Willow grasped for any excuse why she wasn't to blame.

Miss Calendar died, then later, the soul spell was discovered. Morgana knew her moment had arrived. She just needed to make sure the girl was desperate enough to be willing to try anything.

* * *

><p>After Willow's first attempt in the library failed, she asked Morgana what went wrong.<p>

'_I'm sorry, Willow,'_ Morgana apologized. _'I thought sharing my power with you would be enough. There's a way, but…no, forget it.'_

'_What? What do I need to do?'_ Willow pleaded, frantic to make up for her interference on Buffy's birthday.

'_Well, if you allow me to take temporary control of your mind and body, I will be able to access more of my power,'_ Morgana suggested. _'Then once I relinquish it back to you, you will be able to access it as well,' _she added as an enticement.

Willow held off on accepting the offer until she attempted the spell again in the hospital. She could feel it wasn't working, so she let Morgana take over, unaware it would be the last thing she did on her own.

* * *

><p>AN: So now Morgana's in the driver's seat.


	3. Chapter 3: The Battle

**Chapter 3: The Battle**

A/N: This chapter has time skips to cover from when Buffy left Sunnydale until the episode _'Revelations'_.

Challenge: personal request from Harry, who has faithfully R&R a lot of my stories. _Finally_ finishing this!

Warning: ehh, probably not for Willow fans. **This chapter has the deaths.**

Thanks to my betas: none this time.

Disclaimer: BtVS and AtS characters belong to Joss Whedon / Mutant Enemy. Don't own Camelot characters either, but don't have the slightest clue who does since I'm not using a particular book or movie about them. I claim no rights to any copyrighted material. Please do not copy or take this story without my permission.

* * *

><p><strong>Willow's home<strong>

As Morgana assumed control of Willow's body after the ensouling spell, she discovered something she hadn't picked up on before – although when she thought about it, it wasn't entirely surprising. The nascent witch's body was too weak to sustain Morgana's level of power for long without burning itself out…literally. Unfortunately, that meant she would have to hold off on doing much magick until she found a way to counter that problem.

Maybe the Watcher's books held the solution.

Indeed, she did find the answer to why Willow's body wasn't working as it should. It was a side note to the event of Catherine Madison switching bodies with her daughter, both of whom were witches. Apparently the Council mages found out through trial and error over the past millennium that unless the two people involved in a body switch were blood-related, the new vessel had to be of similar power levels to the invading essence.

If the invading essence was too weak, the body would reject it and the invader would die; if the invader was too powerful and they would burn the vessel out…and die. Only if the levels were close to the same would the essence have the chance to defeat the vessel without killing it. Basically it came down to which side wanted the body more.

Unfortunately for Morgana, that meant there were very few human beings who could hold her powers. But she could think of at least one…

Damn the Slayer for leaving the town after she killed her lover!

Morgana was almost certain the girl was a match for her power-wise, and given the fragile emotional state she must be in at the moment, it would be easy to destroy her will to keep the body.

The good news was that guilt would eventually make the Slayer return to her 'duty' on the Hellmouth. Morgana hoped it wouldn't take too long for that to happen, though.

Until that day, she would set the scene to guarantee the right 'welcome' was waiting for the Slayer. Using Willow's combination of logic and resolve face, she convinced the other children to get involved in doing the Slayer's job.

If they did a good job somehow, then the Slayer would feel unnecessary, and the others probably would let her know that, too. If the others happened to die, then she would be crushed and feel responsible for their deaths. Either way, Morgana would win.

Her next target was the Slayer's mother. She needed to ensure the reconciliation between mother and daughter was shaky at best. It took using a little magick in her voice to persuade the woman to carry on with her life as if nothing were wrong. Morgana chuckled to herself when she heard the woman joined a book club.

When the Slayer found out that her mother was reading and discussing books instead of looking for her, the woman would have a hard time convincing her daughter that she actually had been grieving the whole summer. Only one to go…

Too bad the Watcher was another story.

Morgana couldn't be sure if it was because of his own magical background or if it had something to do with the bond between Watchers and Slayers, but the man refused to do anything but search continuously for the missing girl.

All was not lost on that front, however. Morgana could use the fact that he was tirelessly searching for the Slayer when he should have been recovering from the torture inflicted on him by her boyfriend to make the Slayer feel guilty.

After weeks of waiting, Morgana's patience finally was rewarded. The Slayer was back in town.

Time for phase two of her plan…

* * *

><p>The boy Willow had been so hung up on was doing a wonderful job of handling the semi-overt hostility, and his bitch girlfriend – and that was a compliment, in Morgana's opinion – managed to do some damage with her thoughtless comments. 'Willow's' approach went a different direction.<p>

To steal a phrase from her vessel's psychologist parents, she'd play the passive-aggressive with the Slayer. Starting with standing her up for coffee, missing phone calls…things of that nature.

Morgana had mixed feelings about their success in isolating the Slayer on the night of her 'welcome home' party. On the one hand, the Slayer knew that she had a lot of groveling to do before they would forgive her, but on the other hand, they almost took it so far that she was going to leave again. That simply wouldn't do.

Fortunately, the zombies attacked, which allowed them to work together and repress their feelings afterwards. These children were wonderful at burying their resentments and anger.

Before they started the isolation again, Morgana would have to risk a little more magick to keep the Slayer in town until she was sufficiently prepared to lose her body to Morgana. A compulsion potion in her mocha would do the job nicely and wouldn't take much effort on Morgana's part.

Once she tricked the Slayer into making a vow not to leave again, the potion would ensure she couldn't…at least for a year – which would be long enough for Morgana's purposes.

It was all working so good until the other Slayer showed up a couple weeks later…

* * *

><p>The new girl had the most infuriating timing possible! The blonde Slayer had almost been to the breaking point when <em>she<em> showed up and gave her a sense of belonging again! Sure it was tainted by jealousy towards the 'new and improved Slayer' model, but if they continued to push Buffy away, she might just find a stronger friendship with the brunette girl. Now she would have to move her plans forward before she was ready.

Morgana still didn't think she was strong enough to overpower Buffy…by herself.

However, if she stole the power of a couple strong sorcerers, the blonde wouldn't stand a chance! She cast a spell to locate the strongest sorcerers and sorceresses in the town, and not surprisingly, the Watcher wasn't even among the top five. Since he no longer practiced, his levels had dropped.

Not that she would attempt to steal his powers anyway. Even if she succeeded, it would tip off the Slayer that something was wrong. Given her insane loyalty to people she cared about, the blonde might do something foolish to find out who hurt her Watcher.

No, it would be better to stick with non-innocents for this part.

The first 'victim' was a skeezy guy who got new users addicted to his brand of magick, then sucked them dry. It was a nice feeling to drain that loser of his stolen powers.

The only problem was that the increase in power also increased how fast her body was burning out from the overload. She'd have to trick the Slayer into being right there with her when she drained the Mayor of his powers so she could jump bodies immediately.

Yeah, the other powerful user in the area happened to be the Mayor; how weird was that?

* * *

><p><strong>Sunnydale High Library<strong>

Morgana rushed to the library, hoping to find the Slayer there so she could finish this.

Unfortunately, she found the boy ranting to the Watcher about something instead.

"Willow! You'll never guess what's happened!" the boy shouted when he saw her enter.

"Unless it has something to do with the Mayor, it doesn't matter right now!" Morgana shouted back.

"Deadboy's back and Buffy's making out with him!" the boy insisted on telling her.

Huh…that was interesting, and if she wasn't on such a time crunch, she might try to use that to her advantage. Unfortunately, she didn't have time. Maybe she'd mention it during the takeover. "Yeah, I don't care unless he's trying to open the Hellmouth tonight! Buffy has to stop the Mayor first, then we can yell at her for her poor decisions."

The Watcher interjected, clearly uncomfortable with the discussion about his Slayer hiding the creature who tortured him, "What's this about the Mayor?"

She had come up with what she hoped was a plausible story on the way to the school. "I was at City Hall earlier, looking up something for an extra credit project I'm working on and saw a vampire go into the Mayor's office. He passed by a mirror and didn't have a reflection," she explained in case they were wondering how she knew it was a vampire.

"Anyway, I went over to warn the Mayor or something, but then I heard them talking about opening the Hellmouth tonight. The strange thing is that he's not coming here for it; he's doing a ritual in his office," Morgana told them, crossing her fingers that they would believe her.

"Ha! That's funny!" the boy snorted, temporarily forgetting his anger at the Slayer. "Finally a bad guy who is smart enough not to be where we would expect him to be!"

"I suppose that does make for an odd sort of logic," the Watcher agreed warily, if not fully convinced. "Okay, you two start researching how we might be able to stop him, and I'll go look for Buffy. Maybe she can find Faith to help us. I suppose I should inform Mrs. Post as well. Not one word about Angel until after this is over!" he warned the boy.

* * *

><p>Much to Morgana's relief, the female Watcher suggested that she and the new Slayer keep searching for the Glove of Myhnegon. Morgana knew better, but by the time the evil woman had the Glove, Morgana would be powerful enough to take it from her. The important thing was to gain the blonde Slayer's body tonight.<p>

After the pair left them, Morgana 'found' a spell she could use to fight the Mayor's magick.

"That looks very dark, Willow," the Watcher cautioned. "I'm not sure it's such a good idea for you to try a spell like that. Where did you find that book, anyway?"

Thinking quickly, Morgana replied, "From Mrs. Post. She said something about inadequate ritual books?" In truth, she found it at Rack's place and it was close enough to what she wanted to do that she could pretend she was using it instead of her own spell. "I don't think I'll be able to actually do it, but maybe it can distract the Mayor long enough for Buffy to stop him," she offered meekly.

Stung over the barb flung at him by that insufferable woman, the Watcher still looked uncomfortable with the idea, but he finally nodded. "But only if you absolutely have to."

Despite her reputation for not being big on the research, the Slayer came over to look at the spell and had a peculiar reaction to it…almost as if she had seen it before somewhere. "Just be careful, Wills. This could be dangerous."

Only a harsh glare from the Watcher kept the boy from opening his mouth during their research session. The tension in the room was palatable though, so they were almost relieved when they had to leave for City Hall.

* * *

><p><strong>City Hall<strong>

As luck would have it, the Mayor actually _was_ performing a sacrifice that night when they arrived. It wasn't to open the Hellmouth, but the others didn't need to know that.

The Slayer and Watcher were fighting the demons and vampires while the boy helped Morgana set up her spell to drain the Mayor's magick. Unfortunately for her, the Mayor recognized what she was doing and fought back against her power. She needed some more life force energy to beat him, so she reached out for the nearest source…the boy.

When the Mayor was defeated and his minions gone or killed, Morgana turned to the Slayer to get ready for another body jump, not even caring about the second dead body behind her.

So she was quite surprised when the Slayer said, "I had hoped I was wrong about you; that it wasn't really you…_Morgana_," she spit the name out like it was poison. She told the Watcher to check to see if the boy was alive of not. When the Watcher shook his head sadly, the Slayer's eyes flashed angrily. "There cannot be any of Willow left inside if you were able to kill the boy she loved with her heart and soul. That makes two people that my vessel cared about that you killed."

The Watcher looked confused, but Morgana felt like she was hit with a two by four. "Merlin!" she hissed, certain that her old nemesis was the one speaking with the blonde's mouth.

The Slayer's head nodded, "It is I. On the night of Samhain, my vessel could only find a costume with my essence tied to it. Just as you did, I gained permission to stay. Only in my case, it was so she could call on my help to save the world if she had to."

"Then why didn't _you_ re-ensoul the vampire?" Morgana snapped.

She could almost see Merlin's expression of disgust at the thought, despite the facial features being different.

"Because that is evil magick…which you know," he reminded her. "There were times when I came close to coming out, but I had promised her that I would only do so if the world was in imminent danger of ending. Even when the monster almost succeeded in opening Acathla, all I had to do was give her a little encouragement not to give up during the fight. As you are finding out, the more we force our presence on our hosts, the more it affects their bodies. The Slayer is far too important to the world to risk her life so I can spend a few more years here."

Morgana scoffed, "You always were so noble! Tell me, will she let you kill her friend?"

"She knows her friend is already dead, just as surely as being turned by a vampire. It was your killing of Xander that convinced her that Willow was gone," Merlin explained.

The pair of ancients hadn't been paying attention to Giles, so he was able to sneak up behind Morgana from where he had been cradling Xander's body, listening to them as he grieved for two of his children. He wouldn't force Buffy to kill another loved one. While he didn't understand why she hadn't told him about Angel being back, it paled in comparison to what they were facing at the moment.

With no warning to either Morgana or Merlin, Giles took one of his silver daggers and drove it into Morgana's – it helped not to think of her as Willow anymore – back and into her heart. Without even a single spell cast between the old enemies, Morgana died and went into oblivion again.

Merlin looked at the fallen body, then nodded his head in respect to the Watcher. "Thank you for sparing the Slayer more pain. Before I go back into the lockbox in her mind, I just want you to know that she didn't hide him to hurt you. She's scared and confused at why he's back. Please remember that for all her power, she's still a teenage girl who doesn't have all the answers."

"I think we've both lost too much today to let Angel drive us apart," Giles told both Merlin and Buffy. As soon as she got control of her body back, Buffy flew into Giles' arms and started crying…for her friends, for Angel, for Giles, for everything that had happened in the last year. Giles had to choke back his own tears as they comforted each other.

Their lives would not be the same without Willow and Xander.

* * *

><p>AN: Not a happy ending, so I'm sorry about that, Harry…unless you happened to like it. From the beginning, I intended for Buffy/Merlin to have to confront Willow/Morgana. I also had planned from fairly early on that Xander would die, proving that it was Morgana, which would make the fight easier on Buffy. Giles stepping in to kill Morgana was totally last minute as I finished this tonight.


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